How does Growth Mindset training impact student achievement for low-income minority students?

Seminar Title

How does Growth Mindset training impact student achievement for low-income minority students?

Growth Mindset

3rd Grade

Elementary

Other

All Disciplines

How many times have you heard “I can’t do this!” or “This is too hard!” before? Your students are suffering from a case of “The Fixies” and the cure is learning about Growth Mindset! I am excited about the shift I have seen in my students through this research, and believe that every student at every age level has something to gain through learning about how the brain learns and how mistakes and challenges teach us new things. Even better than students believing in their learning is that their test scores will improve as they begin to think more in a growth mindset! Start planning what you want to do with your Q-Comp money now! The lessons I will share from this research are geared towards 3rd and 4th-grade students, but with some adaptations, they can be appropriate for students of all ages. Yes, even high schoolers! Come join me for a riveting discussion about how growth mindset thinking can turn your students from children who think they can’t, to students who know they can!

My research was guided by the question “How does growth mindset training impacts student achievement for low-income minority students?” I conducted my research in a school with a high population of low-income, African-American students where I had observed the students’ tendency to operate in the fixed mindset more naturally than in other, more affluent schools where I had worked. Through my literature review I was able to organize the plethora of information available about the Mindsets into the following categories: (1) the mindsets - what is a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, (2) teaching the neuroscience - how does the brain learn new information, (3) valuing mistakes and productive struggle - how do mistakes and challenges help us learn and why are they necessary for learning, and (4) using growth mindset praise and feedback - how teacher language and framing supports development of a growth mindset. My literature review also led me to understandings about stereotypes in education and the implications those have on low-income and minority students, to better understand how growth mindset can uniquely impact those students. Through my research, I developed three units around growth mindset and taught them to a class of third-grade students for five weeks. I observed noticeable differences in student engagement, willingness to attempt new and difficult tasks, and positivity towards challenges. There was also some measurable improvement in test scores over the control group which indicates a meaningful impact on academic achievement as a result of teaching about growth mindset. As a result of my research, I am working on ways to incorporate more formal growth mindset teaching into Title 1 interventions, and am working with the administrators at my school to have growth mindset teaching become a school-wide initiative.